Tantech received an email from a spinner in NSW, Susan P, enquiring whether we had a product for scouring wool. This enquiry was initiated because we had an advertisement in 'Wool Pages' for our wool & sheepskin detergent. That detergent is based on chemicals used in the scouring & tanning of sheepskin but is for use with finished sheepskin and knitted wool products.
We adjusted the formulation as a wool scour product (500ml and 5 litre containers) and sent a sample to Susan for her to try.
Susan wrote back to say:
"Just wanted to let you know I scoured my first fleece the other day, it has dried now and I am very happy with it.
It is a ram's fleece, cross Corriedale/Merino, a beautiful, soft, black fleece but EXTREMELY greasy. He was uncoated, which means it had more dirt in it than usual. I don't know if you know, but most sheep kept for hand spinning wear coats to keep the fleece in A1 condition.
I had 1.7kg of the fleece where the staple was under 100mm, a bit too short for me to spin in the grease. Because it is such a fine fleece I was going to get the 1.7kg professionally prepared which cost more than the fleece per kilo; but as your Woolscour has worked so well I thought I would give it a go. I used 60ml x 2 washes, a total of 120ml, and I washed the whole 1.7kg in one go, (looked bit like a hairy monster in the laundry tub) but it couldn't have worked out better in my opinion.
I have ordered a fleece from Shiloh, which should be arriving shortly and also two export quality fleeces from Tarndwarncoort when they shear in March next year. I would like to specialise in the finest quality fleece I can find and take my time spinning them. Now that I have your Woolscour, I know I will get a fantastic finished product, well worth the effort. The fleeces are more expensive but when you compare the cost of the raw materials to the man-hours, it is minute. I've had a chance to do some spinning the last couple of days, I want to get a jumper finished before the weather gets too warm to knit and spin."